Developed by Scarab (A short lived internal development studio of Sammy). This game sums up everything that make platformers awesome: huge sprites, and tons of bosses. Also (very lightly) incorporates towns and talking to other characters, which helps make the action far more interesting despite the serious Engrish.

Damn there is some really bizarre secrets in this game. In the first 'Wolf Village' there is a hidden spot in the air that if you keep shooting some kind of weird logo comes out and doesn't seem to do anything.

Theres also a spot in the air in stage 2 just before you jump down the cliffs to fight the stegosauruses, where if you keep shooting eventually a tiny pterodactyl comes out and Japanese text pointing to it saying 'tori'

I'm also certain there must be something more to that 'empty' chest in stage 2...

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

JoshF wrote:In case you haven't noticed, after a roll you automatically run at full speed. It's a lot easier to get all the coins by rolling after certain enemies are destroyed.

Awesome, I never knew about that.

Also I discovered a FUCKING ENORMOUS CRAZY SECRET in stage 4. When entering the Bone Dinosaurs mid-boss room be careful not to scroll too much to the right. Go to the far left and climb up the wall and shoot the corner. Gold coins flow out for so long you have time to go take a piss.

And I discovered another one of the ultra weird secrets that don't seem to do anything. Shoot along the ground near the end of the 2nd wolf village (which is directly after stage 3)

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

Updated with my current score. Lost a life in stage 5 due to finding more bizarre shit. There are these little beetle carvings in the ground, and its possible to actually shoot them (when there is a hill going upwards). I sat there shooting one for ages seeing if something would happen until I ran out of time and died. Then I ran off a bit more and lost my last life on some kind of mini-boss.

The way Roger runs is just too funny.

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

Yep, you see at the bottom of the screen how it has 'Coins /200', that means you get an extend once you get 200 coins. After the first one the next extend comes at 300 coins, then 400 coins and so on. Your coin counter goes back to 0 every time you get an extend.

Theres also a special collectible 1-up in a bonus stage directly after stage 4. Its very difficult to get though.

*EDIT: Just found out this game was apparently developed by a team called 'Scarab', their only other game is 'Sokonuke Taisen Game' which came a year after Dyna Gear. Scarab was likely just made from Sammy developers that made stuff like the horrifically bad Survival Arts, a Mortal Kombat rip-off. Japanese developers that were fans of Mortal Kombat!? Yeah its weird alright. Just look at the coins in Dyna Gear - they are a rip-off of the Mortal Kombat logo (just with a dinosaur head instead of a dragon)

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

arcade-history.com wrote:The background used for the title screen is the Area 4 background.

There are background characters from "Survival Arts" scattered throughout the game :

* In the cliff near the end of Stage 3, strike the wall in the cavity until a monk pops up.* Other monks rise up from the lava pits in the final stage.* During the final boss, there is a female monk in the background.

Good replay, though I did not watch past stage 6 (want to discover that on my own)

Learnt a lot of tricks from it (being able to duck and not get hit by the stage 4 mini-boss) as well as a couple of coin locations I didn't know about. Strangely though, the player misses out on a lot of coins and points in areas.

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

A little progress... How does that stage 4 mini boss trick work? I remember something from the replay where he just ducks to avoid the roll attack, but I got damaged when I tried it (simply pressed down). Easy one anyway though.

zinger wrote:How does that stage 4 mini boss trick work? I remember something from the replay where he just ducks to avoid the roll attack, but I got damaged when I tried it (simply pressed down). Easy one anyway though.

Yeah I tried it too and it damaged me. Either it only works with Wolf (haven't tried it with him yet though) or maybe the early version of MAME that replay was done on had glitches caused from the very early SSV emulation.

Updated my own score as well. I thought stage 7 would be the final, but on the map screen there was another stage after it... Quite a long game.

Another interesting point: The version dumped in MAME seems to be some kind of world release. I always thought the game was never distributed outside Japan and therefore the version in MAME was Japanese. However if you look at the back of the games flyer (http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer ... 05&image=2) you can see in the screenshots that there is Japanese text for the story bits, not English.

Hopefully the Japanese version is found and dumped for MAME soon (although I doubt any of the mamedevs even know it exists considering the current version in MAME isn't tagged as being any region) Seems like this is one of the more obscure and less documented arcade games around.

Theres also a bootleg of the game (also supported in MAME) called 'King of Dynast Gear' which is likely of Taiwanese origin.

Ara Ararauna, Blue and Gold Macaw, 32-34 inches

They are adaptable, and enjoy being in social situations. They readily become adept at performing tricks, and seem to love doing so. Cost:$900-1400

Is that a problem? It might be clue for secret scoring strategies. Sorry though, it's just that obscure games like these packed with tons of little details with hints about japanese arcade craftmanship gives me goosebumps. Makes me wonder if there's a more detailed, japanese alternative to the some what dissappointing arcade-history.com. The science and history of the industry / culture / art form needs to be mapped out before it's too late.